Delphi buys HellermannTyton for £1.07bn

30 July, 2015

Delphi Automotive is buying the UK-headquartered cable management specialist HellermannTyton Group in a deal that values the business at around £1.07bn ($1.67bn). Delphi’s main interest is thought to be in HellermannTyton’s automotive portfolio, but the deal will also strengthen Delphi’s position in the electrical architecture market, while providing a platform for it to expand in HellermannTyton’s other industrial end-markets, including aerospace, defence, alternative energy and mass transit.

The transaction is expected to close late in the fourth quarter of 2015, subject to the usual consents and approvals, and HellermannTyton will become part of Delphi’s Electrical/Electronic Architecture business.

HellermannTyton manufactures a range of more than 60,000 products for fastening, fixing, identifying and protecting cables and their connecting components. It is also active in data and networking technologies. It has around 3,000 employees and is present in 34 countries around the world, including 12 manufacturing sites. Two of them are in the UK – in Manchester and Plymouth.

HellermannTyton has been expanding at 3–5% faster than its end-markets and has achieved a CAGR of around 10% per year since 2010, while maintaining EBITDA margins of around 20%.

HellermannTyton's portfolio includes thousands of cabling products

Delphi expects the acquisition to contribute immediately to its growth and margins, based on “significant” synergies from sourcing and supply chain initiatives. It believes it will achieve synergies worth around $50m per year by the end of 2018.

HellermannTyton can trace its history back to the founding of the Insuloid Manufacturing Company in 1933, and the Hellermann company in Germany two years later. For many years it was part of the Bowthorpe group and was rebranded as HellermannTyton in 1997. Bowthorpe changed its name to Spirent in 2000 and sold the HellermannTyton business in 2006.